History of Whittier
| Whittier Historic Context Study - Dec 2009 |
Timeline of the Whittier Neighborhood
Pre-European Settlement The land belongs to the Eastern Dakota people. It is broad prairie, with hardwood forest to the east and lakes to the west and south.
1849 John Blaisdell squats on some land south of Downtown Minneapolis.
1851 The Dakota cede the land in the Treaty of Mendota and Traverse des Sioux
1855 John Blaisdell builds a log cabin on the hill near 24th St, between Pleasant and Lyndale, Blaisdell School is run out of the parlor. The house overlooks a little lake at what is now 22nd & Lyndale. The lake has since been filled in but the intersection still floods during heavy rainfall.
1879 A steam locomotive begins to run from Downtown along Lyndale Avenue, stimulating construction on that side of the neighborhood.
1883 Blaisdell School is renamed Whittier, after the 19th century poet and abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier. Like other areas of the city, families would soon call their neighborhood after the elementary school.
1890 The first electric streetcar line operates from Washington Avenue to West 31st Street via Nicollet Avenue. Up until the 1940s commercial growth will blossom along the streetcar routes of Franklin, Lake, Nicollet & Lyndale.
1903 A new Whittier school is constructed. The Romanesque Revival brick building is still on the corner of 26th & Blaisdell, and is now Common Bond community housing.
1915 The Minneapolis Institute of Art moves into the neighborhood. The Minneapolis College of Arts moves into the same building.
1924 Washburn Fair Oaks Park is established.
1924 Minneapolis adopts its first zoning ordinance, and codifies Whittier as a multiple dwelling district. As a result, most new residential development will now be for multiple dwellings.
1926 A new building is erected at the NE corner of Nicollet and 25th Street. It is a classic example of ‘artistic front’ stores, popular in the 20s and 30s, with shops on the ground floor and offices or apartments above. The building now houses Spyhouse Coffee, Head to Toe salon and the Whittier Alliance office!
1929 Despatch Laundry opens at 2611 1st Ave S in a fanciful Moorish Revival style building. This is the Flock coworking space today, and the site is nicknamed the ‘onion dome building’.
1940 The Fair Oaks Apartments open; a newspaper describes the complex as “finer living for 224 families”.
1954 The streetcar system is dismantled.
1955 Demolition of Nicollet Ball Park in the nearby Lyndale neighborhood leads to retail failure at Nicollet's southern end.
1960s Post-war suburban flight takes hold in Whittier. Vacant housing becomes common.
1965 German restaurant Black Forest Inn opens.
1967 In spite of vigorous opposition, the Interstate 35W opens. The freeway is built in a curve around the neighborhood to spare the Mansion District and MIA. The freeway cuts off the Whittier and Phillips neighborhoods from one another.
1971 The neighborhood convinces the City to begin construction on a pedestrian bridge across E 24th Street.
1972 Abandoned buildings and adult bookstores prompt the city to establish the Nicollet/Lake Economic Development District in 1972. Several years pass without activity. Target and Herberger's refuse to build the envisioned shopping centers.
1973 The musician owned and operated Artist Quarter jazz club opens at 26th & Nicollet. It will be a cultural center in the neighborhood for the next 20 years.
1975 K-Mart finally agrees to become a tenant on the grounds that the City close Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street, so it will have a sufficient parking lot.
1977 Nicollet Ave is closed at the south end of the neighborhood.
1977 The Whittier Alliance neighborhood association forms, amid bitter neighborhood protests about the closure of Nicollet, high crime and prostitution in the neighborhood, and concerns about deteriorating housing stock.
1978 Kmart store opens at Nicollet and Lake. It has no back entrance and Whittier residents take to calling it the ‘Berlin Wall’. As a concession, Kmart agrees to have a mural painted on the back wall, with a design chosen by neighborhood groups.
1980s Vietnamese, Hmong and Chinese immigrants take advantage of the low rents in Whittier to establish restaurants and grocery stores on Nicollet.
1981 Saint Stephen’s becomes the first church-based homeless shelter in Minneapolis, in response to the people sleeping on the steps.
1988 -- Grant Hart releases his solo EP 2541, named after his former band Husker Du’s office and recording space at 2541 Nicollet. The buildings previous incarnations included the 400-seat Garrick Theatre, opened in 1914, and the Kay Bank Studios in the garage rock golden era. Creation Audio continues the musical tradition in the building today.
1989 Vietnamese restaurant Quang opens.
1991 Jungle Theater is founded, opening in a storefront on the corner of Lake & Lyndale. It will move to its present home in a converted VFW hall in 1999.
1997 The Whittier Alliance / Business Association complete the new branding scheme called Eat Street, with a streetscape reconstruction along the entire corridor.
1997 The new Whittier International School is built on W 26th Street.
1999 The first phase of the Midtown Greenway is created out of the abandoned Milwaukee Road trench, with neighborhood support.
2000 Spyhouse Coffee opens on the corner of 25th and Nicollet.
2005 Karmel Square is developed on Pillsbury Ave. The building was previously a repair workshop for rail cars. It is said to be ‘the largest Somali shopping mall west of Mogadishu’.
2010 Hennepin Healthcare - Whittier Clinic opens at 28th and Nicollet.
2012 Icehouse public plaza opens as part of the Icehouse development, developed in consultation with the Whittier Alliance. The site of the plaza, the Icehouse MPLS bar/restaurant/music venue and Vertical Endeavors was originally the location of the Cedar Lake Ice & Fuel Co. and then Icehouse studios.
2018 The Whittier Alliance holds the inaugural Eat Street Food, Music, & Arts Festival in partnership with Nicollet Avenue small businesses, organizations, and community volunteers.
2019 The Prodigal Public House is opens at the corner of 26th Street and 1st Avenue by Whittier community member and long-time pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, Jeff Cowmeadow, and his family.
2019 The City of Minneapolis acquires the remainder of the lease on Kmart at Lake Street and Nicollet Ave, the final piece necessary to gain complete site control for eventual redevelopment of the full 10 acre parcel of land.
1849 John Blaisdell squats on some land south of Downtown Minneapolis.
1851 The Dakota cede the land in the Treaty of Mendota and Traverse des Sioux
1855 John Blaisdell builds a log cabin on the hill near 24th St, between Pleasant and Lyndale, Blaisdell School is run out of the parlor. The house overlooks a little lake at what is now 22nd & Lyndale. The lake has since been filled in but the intersection still floods during heavy rainfall.
1879 A steam locomotive begins to run from Downtown along Lyndale Avenue, stimulating construction on that side of the neighborhood.
1883 Blaisdell School is renamed Whittier, after the 19th century poet and abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier. Like other areas of the city, families would soon call their neighborhood after the elementary school.
1890 The first electric streetcar line operates from Washington Avenue to West 31st Street via Nicollet Avenue. Up until the 1940s commercial growth will blossom along the streetcar routes of Franklin, Lake, Nicollet & Lyndale.
1903 A new Whittier school is constructed. The Romanesque Revival brick building is still on the corner of 26th & Blaisdell, and is now Common Bond community housing.
1915 The Minneapolis Institute of Art moves into the neighborhood. The Minneapolis College of Arts moves into the same building.
1924 Washburn Fair Oaks Park is established.
1924 Minneapolis adopts its first zoning ordinance, and codifies Whittier as a multiple dwelling district. As a result, most new residential development will now be for multiple dwellings.
1926 A new building is erected at the NE corner of Nicollet and 25th Street. It is a classic example of ‘artistic front’ stores, popular in the 20s and 30s, with shops on the ground floor and offices or apartments above. The building now houses Spyhouse Coffee, Head to Toe salon and the Whittier Alliance office!
1929 Despatch Laundry opens at 2611 1st Ave S in a fanciful Moorish Revival style building. This is the Flock coworking space today, and the site is nicknamed the ‘onion dome building’.
1940 The Fair Oaks Apartments open; a newspaper describes the complex as “finer living for 224 families”.
1954 The streetcar system is dismantled.
1955 Demolition of Nicollet Ball Park in the nearby Lyndale neighborhood leads to retail failure at Nicollet's southern end.
1960s Post-war suburban flight takes hold in Whittier. Vacant housing becomes common.
1965 German restaurant Black Forest Inn opens.
1967 In spite of vigorous opposition, the Interstate 35W opens. The freeway is built in a curve around the neighborhood to spare the Mansion District and MIA. The freeway cuts off the Whittier and Phillips neighborhoods from one another.
1971 The neighborhood convinces the City to begin construction on a pedestrian bridge across E 24th Street.
1972 Abandoned buildings and adult bookstores prompt the city to establish the Nicollet/Lake Economic Development District in 1972. Several years pass without activity. Target and Herberger's refuse to build the envisioned shopping centers.
1973 The musician owned and operated Artist Quarter jazz club opens at 26th & Nicollet. It will be a cultural center in the neighborhood for the next 20 years.
1975 K-Mart finally agrees to become a tenant on the grounds that the City close Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street, so it will have a sufficient parking lot.
1977 Nicollet Ave is closed at the south end of the neighborhood.
1977 The Whittier Alliance neighborhood association forms, amid bitter neighborhood protests about the closure of Nicollet, high crime and prostitution in the neighborhood, and concerns about deteriorating housing stock.
1978 Kmart store opens at Nicollet and Lake. It has no back entrance and Whittier residents take to calling it the ‘Berlin Wall’. As a concession, Kmart agrees to have a mural painted on the back wall, with a design chosen by neighborhood groups.
1980s Vietnamese, Hmong and Chinese immigrants take advantage of the low rents in Whittier to establish restaurants and grocery stores on Nicollet.
1981 Saint Stephen’s becomes the first church-based homeless shelter in Minneapolis, in response to the people sleeping on the steps.
1988 -- Grant Hart releases his solo EP 2541, named after his former band Husker Du’s office and recording space at 2541 Nicollet. The buildings previous incarnations included the 400-seat Garrick Theatre, opened in 1914, and the Kay Bank Studios in the garage rock golden era. Creation Audio continues the musical tradition in the building today.
1989 Vietnamese restaurant Quang opens.
1991 Jungle Theater is founded, opening in a storefront on the corner of Lake & Lyndale. It will move to its present home in a converted VFW hall in 1999.
1997 The Whittier Alliance / Business Association complete the new branding scheme called Eat Street, with a streetscape reconstruction along the entire corridor.
1997 The new Whittier International School is built on W 26th Street.
1999 The first phase of the Midtown Greenway is created out of the abandoned Milwaukee Road trench, with neighborhood support.
2000 Spyhouse Coffee opens on the corner of 25th and Nicollet.
2005 Karmel Square is developed on Pillsbury Ave. The building was previously a repair workshop for rail cars. It is said to be ‘the largest Somali shopping mall west of Mogadishu’.
2010 Hennepin Healthcare - Whittier Clinic opens at 28th and Nicollet.
2012 Icehouse public plaza opens as part of the Icehouse development, developed in consultation with the Whittier Alliance. The site of the plaza, the Icehouse MPLS bar/restaurant/music venue and Vertical Endeavors was originally the location of the Cedar Lake Ice & Fuel Co. and then Icehouse studios.
2018 The Whittier Alliance holds the inaugural Eat Street Food, Music, & Arts Festival in partnership with Nicollet Avenue small businesses, organizations, and community volunteers.
2019 The Prodigal Public House is opens at the corner of 26th Street and 1st Avenue by Whittier community member and long-time pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, Jeff Cowmeadow, and his family.
2019 The City of Minneapolis acquires the remainder of the lease on Kmart at Lake Street and Nicollet Ave, the final piece necessary to gain complete site control for eventual redevelopment of the full 10 acre parcel of land.